By: Brad Brewer | Sports Writer

The A-State volleyball team returned home with its match against Georgia Southern Friday night, and what was thought to be a perfect opportunity to pick up a much needed win ended in heartbreak, as A-State fell to the Eagles in a reverse sweep.

The first set was back and forth early on, but a 5-0 run capped off by a thunderous block from the duo of Madison Brown and Josie Stanford forced Georgia Southern to take a timeout. It worked for awhile as the Eagles recovered to a 15-14 lead, but after a timeout from the Red Wolves, A-State went on an 11-1 run to take the set 25-16.

Servicing was the weakness early on and became the shining spot of the game in the second set, with service errors haunting the Red Wolves en route to a 9-5 Eagles lead. But Hannah Cox secured three aces in quick succession to lead A-State on a 7-1 run, and solid hitting from Brown and Macey Putt put the Red Wolves over the Eagles 25-21 in the second set.

What became more and more obvious was how much the offensive effort was spread apart. One kill could belong to Peyton Uhlenhake while the next was Kendahl Davenport’s. While Putt led efforts with 18 kills, five players hit for at least seven kills and Davenport was the most accurate with a hitting percentage of .353.

The third set was back and forth the entire time with neither team breaking out on a true run to separate themselves. Towards the end of the set the Eagles went up 21-18 over the Red Wolves after multiple long rallies. However, a service error from the Georgians followed by a not-so great dig attempt let A-State back in contention before the Eagles finally secured the set 25-21.

The fourth set was a bit of a train wreck for A-State. The Eagles seemingly had a huge lead the entire set and doubled the score of the Red Wolves at one point at 16-8. It wasn’t even about mistakes. Georgia State consistently outplayed A-State at the net and in the hitting department. Malgorzata Andersohn did not let the set go quietly into the night however, servicing back-to-back aces and assisting on a thunderous kill from Putt. This sparked a new energy in A-State as the Red Wolves started bringing back the fight before ultimately falling 25-20 to force a fifth set.

A service error from the Eagles opened things up nicely for A-State, but their hitting close to the net continued to overpower the Red Wolves to force it back even. In fact, Georgia Southern went on a 5-1 run to force a timeout from A-State. The Red Wolves would fight back, evening the score out at nine apiece before taking a lead and forcing the Eagles to take a timeout of their own. The timeout worked and Georgia Southern went on a streak of five straight points to earn four match points and only needed two to win the match 3-2. The fifth set ended 15-11.

The Red Wolves fell to 4-6 in the Sun Belt with the loss and look to bounce back tomorrow night against Georgia State with first serve scheduled at 6:30 pm.

Categories: Sports